


The Golden Spiral

by genderfluid_pigeon



Series: Nutmas 2017 [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: (not for long), Flower Language, Guilt Lasagna, Identity Porn, Identity Reveal, JARVIS is a good bro, M/M, Secret Admirer, Secret Identity, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Superfamily, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-17 07:28:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13072059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genderfluid_pigeon/pseuds/genderfluid_pigeon
Summary: “So, a secret admirer who can reach my workshop. It’s someone in the team,” he mused aloud.“Or someone who managed to gain Miss Potts’ and Mr. Rhodes’ or Mr. Hogan’s approval along with approval from myself,” JARVIS pointed out.“Right, so like I was saying, someone on the team,” Tony reinforced.“I can neither confirm nor deny that, sir,” JARVIS answered.Tony sighed though and looked down at the gift in front of him. It innocuously sat on his workshop table with what seemed to be a special ribbon wrapped around it. The ribbon had little Ironman head embossed on it with a blue background. Not just any blue, arc reactor blue. Honestly, it was quite an impressive ribbon. The ends of the bow the ribbon formed even had the perfect curls.





	1. Lavender Roses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SuperstringSymphony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperstringSymphony/gifts).



> Lavender rose- Love at first sight

It started like any other thing started involving Tony Stark, suddenly and unexpectedly. He got no warning or preamble it was merely  _ shoved _ upon him. Sometimes, well, most times he hated this. He couldn’t count the amount of times something being sprung on him had ended in something maybe not bad but not the worst thing that could happen. Afghanistan anybody? 

Walking in his workshop after a particularly long day full of SI meetings. They had been about minor thing so while not overly complicated they had just run long and exhausted him. The lights warmed up and turned on automatically, courtesy of JARVIS. His eyes snapped immediately to the gift sitting front and center. He froze mid-step and stared at it. What was  _ that _ doing here?

It was loud and obtrusive and not really his style. What was it doing in  _ his  _ lab. That was the main question. He tilted his head slightly, considering it. He blinked a few times before he rubbed his eyes. Nope, still there.

“JARVIS, what’s that doing there?” He asked.

“Well, sir, a secret admirer, who I will not name unless you absolutely make me, left it there for you. They assured me their intent and explanation of the gift would be left in the note attached,” JARVIS answered.

JARVIS knew he had Tony then. His dad would never force him to do anything and they both knew it. Tony snapped his fingers, there went that source of information. Maybe he could do twenty questions with him later? He nodded, sounded like a plan.

“So, a secret admirer who can reach my workshop.,” he mused aloud before he decided, “It’s someone on the team.”

“Or someone who managed to gain Miss Potts’ and Mr. Rhodes’ or Mr. Hogan’s approval along with approval from myself,” JARVIS pointed out.

“Right, so like I was saying, someone on the team,” Tony reinforced.

“I can neither confirm nor deny that, sir,” JARVIS answered.

Tony sighed though and looked down at the gift in front of him. It innocuously sat on his workshop table with what seemed to be a special ribbon wrapped around it. The ribbon had little Ironman head embossed on it with a blue background. Not just any blue, arc reactor blue. Honestly, it was quite an impressive ribbon. The ends of the bow the ribbon formed even had the perfect curls. A professional probably did this work

This lead him to the vase. It was a creamy beige marbled with a warm gold, almost as if match the head on the ribbon. It held nine roses, each one being lavender in color. There was a note attached with another envelope attached. Both had his full name on them in some beautiful calligraphy. 

Plucking the note from the ribbon he sat down on his stool and opened it.

“ _ Tony _ ,” it read,

“ _ I’m sure you want to know who I am, I would too if some ‘secret’ admirer came barging in a place I loved and left a random gift or two. I’m sorry for that. I know I should give you your own space but JARVIS said it was okay so I tried to be in there as little as possible. Still, if you want to chuck this whole thing out the window I won’t exactly blame you.” _

Tony was both offended and impressed simultaneously. Someone finally understood how important his workshop was and yet they still invaded it. Though, given they wanted to remain a secret admirer he could give them this one. He laughed as he read about his admirer confirming with JARVIS that it was ok.

He knew many people saw his child as a glorified toaster. They thought he was just to be ordered around and not that JARVIS could and did think on his own. It was a problem he had fought with most of his friends, save Rhodey.

He frowned at the last part. Why would he throw the gifts away? Even if he hated them he would admire them for a little while. Most of the time  _ some _ effort went into gifts. It was always best to appreciate the effort some before throwing it away, if he even did. Most of the time the gifts he didn’t like went into a vault for him to laugh at in fondness when he was down. Not that anyone would know that.

_ “Anyway, onto the actual gifts. That’s right there are technically two. The first are the flowers and their vase. I found the ribbon while out shopping the other say and it made me think of you. I quite like it, personally. That’s just me though. Maybe you find it annoying? Who knows? Well, you do I suppose.” _

Two gifts, oh, wasn’t that nice, Tony mused as he read the letter. At the mention of the ribbon he looked over to it and carefully untied it from around the vase. The second envelope lightly landed on the table and he slid that over to himself so he could look at it when it was introduced.

Sitting the letter aside for a moment he picked up the ribbons and stretched it out to its full length. Judging it he chewed on an idea for a second before he tied it in a nice bowed bracelet around his right wrist.  Smiling at it he made a decision to ask his admirer where they got it, when he found out who they were that is. He quite liked it. He picked up the letter and continued reading.

_ “Sorry about my little ramble there. The meaning behind the gift is what I was going for here. Nine roses, like the number I gave you proclaim eternal love. Any rose says “I love you” but a lilac rose declares “Love at first sight.” I hope you enjoyed them. I’m told they’re engineered to be odorless so as not to interfere with your work like I know scents do for some people.” _

He smiled despite himself. The little rambled had been adorable in his own not-so-humble opinion. At the number of the roses mentioned his gaze flicked towards them so he could count them. Yep, nine. He felt some heat travel up his neck and he rubbed at the back of it at the meaning of the roses. 

Wow, that was,  _ really sweet _ actually. He sniffed, allergies no doubt, and felt his allergies return full force at the scent comments. Have strong scents, bar some, actually did upset him while working. Normally they would give him headaches but prolonged exposure was actually known to make him ill for days. That was  _ really _ thoughtful and he knew no one actually knew that about him except Pep, Rhodey, and Happy.

_ “The last thing is all that’s left I guess. I managed to get down some quick sketches of your suit the other day while you were at your press conference. I think you might like them. None of them are colored or as finished as I would like them to be but c’est la vie, you know? Now, considering I  _ am _ running out of paper and I don’t really feel the urge to get more I will sign here. _

_ Sincerely _

_ Your Secret Admirer” _

Tony picked up the second envelope and sat down the letter. He would analyze the paper letter for anything useful. For now though, he lightly spun the envelope on its corner in his hands before flipping it face down. Grabbing a small letter opener (with a black widow emblem on the pommel) he deftly slit open the envelope.

Inside were two carefully folded pieces of paper. The paper was obviously from a sketchbook but beyond that Tony had no immediate clues as to what the drawings were like. Opening the first of the pieces of paper he was greeted with several sketches of his helmet coming off his face in a process. He was amazed at the amount of detail the sketches went into to describe how his helmet came off.

The next piece of paper had his suit in various poses. Some were serious, like his suit walking or leaning against an invisible counter, while other were a bit more ridiculous, like his suit doing the splits or the can-can. The last two earned a full hearted chuckle from him.

Sitting the drawings aside, for now, he picked up the vase and smelled the flowers. Yes, no scent. He would definitely be keeping these. He had to decide if he wanted to lookup all the places that sold these roses or just leave it up to chance. He would probably leave it up to chance knowing himself. While the mystery would kill him it was fun.

Carefully shifting the vase he called to DUM-E and U, “Hey guys come check out the presents someone sent us!”

DUM-E woke up with a few happy beeps while U woke up with a long whir. Immediately both came over, getting out of their docking stations, and tilted their claws at the flowers. U took one and gently tilted it back and forth by the stem. DUM-E  took a little swipe at the vase.

“Hey, idiot, watch it this was a  _ gift _ . That means no breaking it, okay?” Tony lightly snapped with no real fire, “I know present normally means destroy but this is for me this time, okay DUM? I need to keep these pretty for me to look at for awhile, okay? If you want you can one and  _ one _ only, like U.”

U, at being praised, gave a few happy beeps. DUM-E gave the equivalent of a grumble before he picked up his own flower and went back to his charging station.  As gently as he could (much more gently than he was when extinguishing Tony, the man himself noted) he sat his flower in a little cup he had with water in it. Why he had a cup with water in it was beyond Tony but it made the little guy happy.

U let out a few beeps and put his flower back to poke at Tony’s wrist. Tony sighed and sat the vase down and held out his wrist. DUM-E, sensing the conversation had changed no doubt, rolled over and also poked gently at Tony’s wrist. They were both interested in the ribbon made bracelet.

“It’s a bracelet,” Tony explained.

U and DUM-E gave identical monotone hums. Tony choked on his spit in amusement.

“Okay how about this, my secret admirer sent me this special ribbon. I don’t know where to get it but I _ will _ get you guys some,” Tony acquiesced.

Both bots made happy beeps before he clapped his hands and said, “Alright everyone, back to your regularly scheduled programs. Come on, DUM-E, don’t give me that look you know we only celebrate for a few moments at a time. U, I’ll keep the flowers down here so you can try to draw them- I know you like to draw with those crayons Bruce got you.”

Both bots scuttled off to do their work while he picked up the vase and moved to to his set of shelves over his couch. There were several other things on the shelf. He barely paid them mind nowadays. 

Moving back to the table he picked up the sketches and smiled at them. Walking over to his desk, the one covered in papers and diagrams with more Post-It notes than a small nation (if you asked Pepper or Rhodey), he opened the bottom left drawer and put them in there. They joined all his favorite finished drafts that were currently in there. The drawer only held about twenty sheets of paper from his whole life at SI.

Walking over to a section of pipe with the beginnings of a monitoring system being attached to it. Hefting it up onto his work table, and tucking the note into his pocket, he pulled up the schematics, just to make sure he was doing this right, and set to work. He pulled his soldering iron over and the world faded out in a blast of AC/DC, courtesy of JARVIS.

* * *

The first shelf was the tallest and the least touched. It held a few photos. The first was of a “perfect family.” A young Tony, no older than eight, sat on the lap of Maria while Howard stood behind them. They all had smiles on their faces but Tony could have told you how long he got yelled at after that photo. The next one had a Tony of roughly the same age as the last photo in the arms of Ana and Edwin Jarvis. Their smiles were real and huge. The third photo had an older Tony working on DUM-E right before his activation. Rhodey was pictured as a foot in the photo. The last one was facedown. If someone would care to flip it over it would have had Tony and Obadiah Stane smiling and laughing together at Tony’s introduction as CEO of Stark Industries.

The second shelf extend out to the right of the top shelf and held some more memorabilia. An old circuit board was on it at the far right. Moving left there was the proof he had a heart (repaired now), a picture of him and Rhodey when he got promoted to Colonel, a picture of him and Pepper the day after she became CEO with Happy in the background, and finally there was a pic of him and the team, the Avengers, in the shawarma shop.

The last shelf was mostly empty at this point but it extended out to the left of the shelf above it. In the area that stuck out to the left sat the vase and the flowers. Blank spots in the dust were settled upon it like it had just been cleaned out and it had been cleared of his diplomas recently.

Hidden on the desk was three more photos. A group of soldiers stood outside of a hum-vee. On the back of it in carefully detailed pen there was a list of names. The other two held a picture of a amazingly beautiful young woman and a  _ very  _ young Howard. The last one was a picture of a family. If asked it was just a stock photo he was meaning to replace but on the back of it was written in another language “Gulmira, the only surviving photo of the Yinsen family.”


	2. Hannah Montana Movie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No flowers this chapter but have some meaningless plot and worldbuilding. As always check me out at my tumblr genderfluid-pigeon and scream at me in comments

Tony woke up with a sharp jab to his flank. He awoke with a harsh squeaking inhale as he tumbled off his stool, hand blindly reaching for the counter. Landing on the ground in a harsh wheeze and groan he opened his eyes to find the culprit. DUM-E innocently stood with his claw twisted in question.

“DUM-E you absolute moron what have we said about jabbing me awake while I’m on my stool?” Tony snapped, slowly pushing himself into a sitting position.

DUM-E let out a high whine and his claw dipped in sadness. Tony knew the poor bot didn’t really get it but he got it enough. Rubbing at his sore, everything, Tony got up and reset the stool to sitting position.

“Well, I’m awake now. What’s up?” He asked.

U rolled over with his Avengers communicator that was going crazy. With a loud oath shouted he grabbed and picked it up, putting it in his ear. Running to the stairs, the elevator would just infuriate him, he took the stairs two at a time as his comm came online.

“Ironman where are you? We’ve been trying you for fifteen minutes!” Came Clint’s annoyed shout.

Making it onto the community floor he ran up through the carwash (as Bruce had affectionately called it). Leaping into the air he let the suit settle around him; the pinch around his reactor was a comforting inconvenience. Free-falling for a few seconds he let JARVIS blink the HUD on and then he assumed his flying position and blasted off.

“Sorry, I was  _ sleeping _ for once, Birdbrain,” He shot before asking, “Where’s the hoedown so I can throw down?”

“Upper Queens,” came the Good Captain’s voice. The rest of the team answered in groans. 

“Stark, please refrain from making  _ terrible _ references to shows,” Black Widow came over the comms with.

“Ten-four my good Captain. I will be there in but a minute and I would like to take the time to point out that the show in reference was  _ amazing _ ,” Tony replied, shooting off in the direction where faint roars and screams were coming from.

“Enough chatter, Ironman and Widow, just get here quickly,” Captain America commanded in his deep baritone.

Bursting into the fray he was wholly unsurprised to see some mechanical snake with legs, only front ones so not  _ quite _ a lizard. The problem was it was the size of a skyscraper and was currently breathing fire.

Swerving to avoid a swipe from its, _ really was that necessary _ , spiked tail, Tony entered the fray with a unibeam right to the beast’s left eye. It broke with an arc of lightning outwards.

“That a good enough entrance for you?” Tony shot over the comms.

The snake, dragon,  _ thing _ grabbed him with a taloned hand and threw him against a building. Groaning at the pain that rocketed up his back at the throw he flew out of the building. Listening to Cap’s plan he fired off some warning shot when the mechanical marvel got too close to the team.

In the end, he only got scorched once, throw against two more buildings, and pinned until the suit whined under the pressure once. He knows he’ll have a myriad of little burns littering his arms and legs. His chest and back and stomach will be bruised for days after this. Thank god for that special ointment he developed specifically for this (and subsequently made ready for the public as a numbing and healing agent).

Heaving himself out of the crater he was thrown into when the monster exploded in a contained field (he had been inside it thus experiencing the blast like normal) he instructed JARVIS, “Go on autopilot but let me speak. My body is done.”

“Very well, Sir,” came JARVIS’s response.

Going “limp” in the suit Tony “relaxed” as best he could while the suit lifted the debris and carried them to designated clearance points. Luckily S.H.I.E.L.D. had evacuated the blocks quickly so only to civilians were hurt and even then they were only scrapes. 

Dawn broke as he tossed the last “snake” wire to Hawkeye. Calling the Avenjet those who couldn’t fly the short distance back climbed in. He and Thor flew alongside the jet as it took off and flew to the tower.

“Cap, I’m going to take a few laps around the city. You know, make sure everything is okay in our city and the surrounding areas?” Tony suggested.

Captain America nodded, “Good idea Stark, get on it.”

With a nod, Tony controlled the suit until it began to the first lap and then he let JARVIS pilot it. He drowsed lightly in the suit, alert for anything over the comms but getting some much-needed rest as he slowly circled. It was one of the few ways he could sleep in the suit. 

_ Yes, _ he could sleep in the suit in his bed but it was very uncomfortable but this was surprisingly alright. Even if it meant flying higher than the buildings to avoid swerving. Still, this time alone gave him some moments to think over his new Secret Admirer.

He lined up the Avengers in his mind. There was, currently staying near enough to get to his workshop in the time he had been gone, Jan, Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Hulk (Bruce), Wolverine (this was highly doubtful and he was only a sometimes-member), Ant-Man, and Captain Marvel. Most of them, like Wolverine, were unlikely candidates but there were a few he had his suspicions on. The barest hint of suspicions because all but the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents tended to live with him on a constant rotation with off-duty members.

The Avengers was organized into shifts except for core members, like himself and Captain America. Members like Captain Marvel, Ant-Man, and Wasp would trade with some of the others like Winter Soldier, Falcon, Vision, Scarlet Witch, and more. They would take the place of the other members for three to six months (depending) and would live at Avengers Tower or the Compound. (They used the Tower during the warmer months but come November they moved to the Compound to have room for families to stay and have a more homey feeling.)

He frowned in his suit as he took it down to the carwash. Walking forward he let it strip the suit leaving him in his (not normal) attire of a tank top and a pair of cargo pants. He stumbled some at the loss of balance when the final bits of the suit came off him. He really could use some support now but, oh well, it was too late for that. Stumbling to a couch, he held himself up with its help.

“JARVIS? How fast can you get me to my floor?” he asked his AI.

“I can get you there in under two minutes if you walk to the elevator as soon as possible, Sir” came the reply.

Shoving himself up and off the couch he lurched towards the elevator and was rewarded with a pleasant ding as the doors opened. Forcing himself in it he let JARVIS control the elevator up to his floor. Once it came to a stop he walked out and into his bedroom, collapsing on top of his bed. He lay there for a few seconds before JARVIS adjusted his lights to the dim-enough-to-barely-see-anything and the blackout curtains came across his windows. 

With a sigh, he sat up and stripped off his tank top and cargo pants. Grabbing some of his specially made ointment he rubbed it in where the bruises would be formed the worst. He rubbed quite roughly except around his reactor where he gently massaged it in. Thankfully the light numbing agent set in and the worst of the pain went away. Lying back down in his bed, this time under the covers, he allowed himself to drift off.

* * *

 

His dreams were normally fluid and nonsensical but this one turned to a nightmare soon enough. He was back in the cave and it was cold cold  _ cold _ , His chest heaved and hurt with every breath. The warmest thing on him was his electromagnet in his chest, powered by the battery he had to carry around. Soon enough they were shoving his head under the water again and again. 

He jerked, painfully, awake. A shout stopped in his throat. Sitting up with his back against the wall (his bed had no headboard) he ran his hands through his hair. Looking down, he saw the comforting light of his reactor. He stretched against the wall and immediately regretted it.

Swinging his legs off the bed, he stood and grabbed the ointment. He swayed for a second, no doubt due to dehydration, and made his way to his bathroom. The lights came on as bright as they always were and he squinted at the brightness of them. 

Turning the shower on as hot as he would be able to stand it he hopped in, determined to relax his muscles. His shower was one of the few in the tower that had a bench so he could sit when he was exhausted, like now. Sitting down he switched to the lower shower head and picked it out of the holding case. Spraying himself down and relaxing his mind floated to the vase of flowers down in his workshop.

He really did like the vase but he would have liked to know who sent them more. He could meet them and get them proper return gifts. He knew they meant well but not being able to return favors like this made his skin itch. They had to want something from him and he needed to give it to them. He had no real option in this.

Hopping out of the shower he dried off and rubbed in more ointment. Sighing happily he pulled on one of Rhodey’s old MIT shirts and a pair of Pepper’s yoga pants. How the yoga pants fit him was rather beyond him but he enjoyed how they felt regardless. 

Walking to the elevator he pushed the button and waited for it to come to his floor. While he waited he contemplated making some tea over his normal coffee. Coffee, as he stood right now, would give him terrible heartburn and would  _ not _ help anything at all. So, tea it would be.

Listening to the classics from Metallica play on his elevator speakers (something that only played while he was on the elevator) he opened the tablet he had grabbed from the table on his way to the elevator. Opening some programs he picked out an Avengers project, one on how to improve Black Widow’s suit. 

The current suit was, in his own oh-so-humble opinion, much to sexual. Like,  _ honestly _ , what was with the deep V-neck and the skin tight thin material. No, that simply would not do if he had any say in it and he  _ did _ thank you  _ very _ much.

So far he had designed and was testing a slightly thicker suit. The material was special made, normally for his bulletproof vests, he wore under everything. The material could withstand up to thirty times more than the average bulletproof material and twice as thin.

He had picked up the diagram and was testing out on Simulation Black Widow. She seemed to have no adverse effects beyond a slightly heavier suit, which would be easy for Real Black Widow. He would, of course, donate the material to S.H.I.E.L.D. and have them make the actual suit. 

He knew her measurements, give or take an inch or two. He would do everything but sew the suit up and then he would send it to so they could trick it out however they wanted (read: trackers and even  _ more _ weapons belts). It really was no big deal for him. Widow and Hawkeye thought they got all their new gear from S.H.I.E.L.D., because they were good little S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and refused anything with the SI logo on it. He kind of hated it. He made quality things,,  _ much _ better than S.H.I.E.L.D. could ever hope to make in the near future. He digressed though. 

Stepping out of the possibly slowest elevator ride he had had in a while. Walking over the coffee pot he found it was already brewed. Grabbing a cup he poured himself a cup. Taking a sip he moved to go out on the balcony where a small table with high strength umbrella was set up for right now.

Sitting down he pulled up some SI specs and got to work on the next project, bombproof bubbles. They were little pop-up domes to throw over grenades that were supposed to stop the explosion. A challenge but he was up for a challenge or his name wasn’t Tony Stark.

“JARVIS what time is it?” he asked.

“The time is currently eleven AM. It is the same day you fought the ‘metal serpent’ as the media are calling it. You have been asleep for approximately four hours,” JARVIS replied.

“Thanks, Jay,” he answered, settling down for a full day of work.


	3. Giovanni's Italian Restaurant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still no flowers but there is a secret a character is keeping and some cute scenes!

A tap on his shoulder a few hours later made him jump and drop his tablet in shock. It clamored loudly against the metal grating of the table. With a scream, he turned to find Jan looking at him like that time with the mangoes. That time totally didn’t count though, he was justified in doing what he did. 

Putting a hand over his heart he said, “What the  _ hell _ Jan? I was  _ in The Zone _ .”

Jan went to say something before she paused and folded her arms and monotoned, “I can hear the self-imposed capitalization.”

He smiled at her and shrugged with his palms to the sky in his “what can you do? You know you love me,” gesture.  She looked him in the eyes with a raised eyebrow as if daring that foregone assumption. With a sigh, she pulled out the other chair and sat across from him.

This was when he noticed she was in uniform. He frowned at her. He distinctly remembered her shift not starting for another five days, when Hawkeye got off.

“What are you doing here in uniform?” He asked, derailing her mid-thought as she went to speak.

Jan rolled her eyes and said, “They called me in because they think you’re sick.”

Picking up the tablet Tony shot her a silent question with a raised eyebrow. He pulled up the specs and kept half an eye on her as he continued to simulate tests on the fabric. She crossed her ankles beneath the table and leaned forward against the table with her elbows on the edge of it.

“I’m not sick. DUM-E, the idiot, pushed me off my stool to wake me up. I was a bit out of it because I was working on installing a monitoring system on something. I might have been spending all day in the workshop,” he confessed.

Jan shot him a disappointed look and he rolled his eyes in return. He  _ knew _ he was supposed to be spending more time outside his workshop but the monitoring system would provide him with much more data than manually checking it. Besides, no one had even bothered him for the hours he had worked on it or, at least, he didn’t  _ think _ they had. He winced slightly as he imagined ignoring someone like Widow or Captain America. He would never live it down. He knew  _ at the very least _ he hadn’t ignored Hawkeye or Captain Marvel. Those two always made enough noise for him.

Jan sighed and said, “Tony we’ve  _ talked _ about this. You have to get out of the workshop more. JARVIS, what time did he pass out?”

JARVIS piped up, from Tony tablet, “The battle began around four at which point Sir had been asleep for one hour. Then, after the battle at around seven, oh four am Sir fell asleep for another four hours. Seeing as it is currently three in the afternoon, Sir has been working for four hours.”

Tony blinked at this before checking his watch. Huh, so it was three o’clock. He thought it would be closer to two. Shrugging he went back to his calculations. Or he  _ would _ have but Jan’s hand was in the way. Catching the hint, he put his tablet to the side and leaned back in his chair observing her.

“See, I got five hours of sleep within twenty-four hours. That’s WAY more than I normally get and now that I say that aloud I have a feeling I’m going to get in trouble,” He admitted

Jan nodded and added, “ _ But _ I will not be lecturing you right now. Now, we are going to go and get out of the tower and have a lunch date at a little Italian place not far from here.”

Tony heaved an overly dramatic sigh but agreed. Getting up he carried his tablet into the tower and sat it down on a counter in the kitchen as they passed it walking through the floor. Grabbing a hoodie from the coatrack he got in the elevator with Jan.

“Garage level please, Jay,” Tony said.

Jan smiled as he slipped on the jacket. Taking a sniff of the collar he realized why. It was Pepper’s Victoria’s Secret jacket she always wore with the vanilla body spray, hence him being able to identify it so easily. Internally he groaned but knew there was nothing he could do. It was too late, his decision had been made for him.

The elevator stopped and they got out. The garage level was more the first floor of the  _ many _ basements they had. What made it special was the tunnels out of it into various alleys. The inconspicuous exits were phone booths with false bottoms that retracted and lifted up for the superhero using them. It allowed them to exit into civilian life easily and there were no cameras once they entered the tunnel hub which had changing rooms for them. Well, there were but Tony studiously avoided those unless absolutely necessary and so far no situation had come up for him to use them.

The phone booths themselves looked like classic ones that still somehow appeared completely normal. They even functioned like normal ones. He collected the coins from them via a fake mechanic disguise once every other week. He personally detested how they looked like classic phone booths.

Fury had given him a four hour, twenty-seven minutes, and forty-eight-second lecture about how “No,  _ Stark _ , you cannot give these phone booths an upgrade. They have to look old!” God how he hated how right Fury was. (It didn’t mean he didn’t design modern phone booths and install them in other cities though.)

Walking to the tunnel hub he let Jan slip into a changing stall and change while he pulled up his work email and set about sorting what JARVIS refused too. His AI claimed while he was  _ technically _ his butler he would be doing no such menial tasks when there was only five emails.

When he had been CEO there had been much more and JARVIS had fielded them and responded for him but now since he had only a “minor” role in R&D there were many fewer emails. He was the only person in R&D who wasn’t a part of a team but he also did just as much work for Stark Industries as the other two teams (combined if you counted his contributions to the Avengers, much more if you counted his contributions to S.H.I.E.L.D. as well).

Jan stepped out and they headed down the NNW tunnel away from the tower. The walk was a brisk one for fifteen minutes and they stood on the platform together before being squished into a phone booth. They both happily sighed as Jan stepped out of the booth first.

“We should make bigger booths,” he wheezed, rubbing his chest. He always tried to ignore how tight the space was in the phone booths. They tended to bother him if they weren’t his suit.

Smoothing down Pepper’s hoodie which was just a  _ bit _ too tight, yet fashionable, he took a deep breath and flipped up the hood, stepping out of the alley they were in. Jan followed him half a step behind.

“The usual place, Jan?” he shot over his shoulder as he shoved his way through a crowd in the (hopefully) right direction. 

Shoving into the crowd behind him and grabbing his hand she said, “Yeah, as if I would take you somewhere new right now.”

Glaring at a passing guy who looked like he thought he could make a pass at Jan, Tony walked towards the little Italian joint Jan and he frequented. Random Guy soon learned the error of his ways if the hurried panic Tony saw when he walked away was anything to go by. He smirked to himself, still had it. 

They rounded the corner right into a press hotspot and he whipped out Pepper’s shades she kept in her jacket and hunched, confidently walking past them. Jan was lucky in that her secret identity was just that, a secret. He silently, not for the first or last time, bemoaned his idiocy in announcing his place as Iron Man. One reporter glanced at him suspiciously as they walked by but overall nothing happened of note the rest of the way to the restaurant.

Slipping inside the small local restaurant, they waved to the owner. The owner, who had been talking to one of his newer employees judging by the way he went starry-eyed upon seeing Tony, walked over and pulled him and Jan into a tight hug. Gesturing to the new kid on the block the owner ushered him over.

Nervously the boy, as he couldn’t be any older than twenty, walked forward to meet them. Tony gave him a wave while Jan smiled encouragingly at him, holding out a hand to shake. Nervously he shook Jan’s hand.

“This is my grandson, Giovanni,” The owner, whose name was also Giovanni, introduced.

Jan and Tony shared a look before they both nodded in greeting. The younger Giovanni gave a small wave, muttered something in his grandfather’s ear and, at a nod, said, “I’d love to stay but I have a college class to get to. I will see you all later. Especially you, my dear lady.”

Giovanni winked at Jan before grabbing his bag beside the door and exiting. Tony blinked dumbly at the abrupt turnaround in behavior. He opened his mouth to say something but ended up mutely pointing at where the younger Giovanni had been standing with a gaping mouth.

Older Giovanni laughed and said, “He was intimidated for a second, Mister Stark. He thought you and Miss Van Dyne were together but upon recognizing you he realized she was free for the taking, so to speak.”

Tony and Jan snorted in unison before Jan voiced, “As if I am free for  _ anyone's _ taking.”

Tony smiled at her while Giovanni said, “Yes, he is… not too bright in the women  _ or _ men department, unfortunately.”

Tony snorted and immediately clapped a hand over his mouth as he tried to contain his laughter. Jan looked faintly amused but pinched the bridge of her nose, taking a deep breath. 

“Right, let’s pretend that never happened. Giovanni, a table please?” Jan said, exasperated.

Giovanni gave a laugh and nodded before taking them both by the shoulders to the booth at the front left corner of the restaurant. It had the front windows on one side, a wall on another and two open-ended sides. Two, maybe three, chairs could squeeze into the little red, round, table. It had two quaint little wrought iron chairs with rather ornate backs. The little red cushions match the table and were worn a tiny bit in. 

Jan sat in the seat in the actual corner while Tony took the one with his back facing the restaurant. Sliding off his sunglasses, Tony took the proffered menu from Giovanni while Jan took hers. Giovanni walked off leaving them to themselves. As one the propped up the menus on either side of the table, insides facing in, creating a little fort for themselves. Hunching so they were both hidden from view they stifled their laughter.

“I’m thinking Chicken Alfredo for me, how about you, Jan?” Tony asked with a glint in his eyes.

“I’m thinking the Chicken Carbonara,” Jan answered.

Tony looked at Jan with a deadly serious look and said, “So we’re both chickens are we?”

With a groan, Jan sat back up while Tony covered his mouth in his giggling fit. His body was shaking with his suppressed laughter. 

Jan looked out of the window and dramatically said, “When will my humor return from the war?”

Tony lost it. With a loud, slightly mad, cackle, he sat up and toppled the chair over. Several patrons used to such an act form the eccentric couple. His chair hit the floor and knocked out of the breath out of him. This, naturally, had no effect on him. With a loud guffaw, he slapped a hand over his mouth to smother the noises somewhat.

Muffled giggles still slipped out and his whole body was quivering. His chest was aching something fierce but it didn’t matter. Jan had just made  _ the best _ joke. He even continued to giggle as Jan ordered their food once their usual drinks got to them. Jan sat his espresso on his side while her lemonade was held in her grip. She was suppressing her own smile.

Finally gaining control of himself with some (relatively) deep breaths, he stood and picked the chair back up. Smoothing his, sort of, hoodie down, he sat back down. 

Suddenly, a little girl walked up to them. She was no older than five or six. Her mother stood behind her with a longsuffering look on her face. Tony knew that look quite intimately and was instantly on alert.  He would raise heaven and hell for this child now. A child may be tough sometimes but they should never be seen as such a chore.

“H-Hello, Mr. Stark,” the little girl greeted him.

He smiled and properly kneeled to see her better and be more at her level. He finally noticed what she was wearing. She had on beaten blue jeans, an Iron Man jacket, a Captain America shirt, and some Hulk sneakers. Ah, so an Avengers fan. If he wasn’t mistaken he could also see Wasp earrings.

With trembling hands, she held out a small book and a pen. It had a black cover with a picture of ma clearly robotic hand shaking hands with a human one. The title was  _ Why Asimov Isn’t All You Need: A Guide to Creating Your Own Robot _ and it was by Anthony E. Stark.

“Hello there, I’m surprised someone read this old thing. What’s your name, while I sign this? Assuming you want it signed,” he replied.

She blushed under his smile and nodded. In a shaky voice, she said, “My name is Riri and I really  _ love _ your book. I made my own mini-bot from it. His name is Bit.”

Tony felt his heart swell at the silly engineering pun. Still, he indulged Riri considering her mom was looking more and more livid the longer they stood there.

“Do you know what my first bot was named?” He asked little Riri as he wrote a message on the cover of the book for her.

Riri went wide-eyed with wonder and nodded her head. Jan had stopped watching people walk by and was actually paying attention to the conversation now, Tony didn’t provide his bots names on a whim. As much as the public knew about him he played his important cards close to his chest. If there was one thing Jan knew about Tony it was that he had a  _ killer _ poker face when he wanted to have one.

So what made this girl different? Simple, her mother looked like she’d rather be anywhere but here. Tony knew what it was like to have so many ideas and for a parent to shoot them down. He knew those looks of disappointment, the false “That’s  _ great” _ s. He knew that so well he could write a whole book about it.

Well, he  _ would _ write a book about it but people couldn’t take the revelations about The Howard Stark. God that man was a right bastard at home but who cared as long as his public image was perfect? Well, Tony cared. Tony cared about this little girl who kept glancing at her mom like she knew her time was running out and had to make every moment last.

“Well, his name is DUM-E, that’s spelled D-U-M dash E. And he can be quite the smart bot,” Tony joked lightly.

Riri let out a small “wow” of amazement before her mom grabbed her arm and jerked her towards the door.

“Sorry, Mr. Stark, but we really must get going,” Riri’s mom apologized.

Tony smiled and said, “Of course, I wouldn’t want to waste any more of your time. You get to where you’re going and Riri? You keep building kiddo.”

As Riri was all but dragged out of the restaurant she nodded and shouted, “I will!”

Smiling, Tony got back in his seat and turned back to Jan right as their food arrived, perfect timing. Jan went to say something but judging by the way he shoveled a spoonful of alfredo in his mouth Tony wasn’t interested in talking. The way his eyes trailed Riri and her mom as they walked led Jan to make several conclusions that wouldn’t be completely wrong.

Tony and Jan ate in relative silence, as they normally did. Occasionally he would make comments on the taste and how good it was. The little restaurant was  a bit of a hole-in-the-wall place really. The only reason he and Jan had found it had been because he had destroyed it, literally, on accident once. After all, being thrown into a restaurant via doombot was an interesting way to meet your new favorite Italian joint.

They finished their meal and Jan gave Tony a flat look when he stole a handful of mints as they walked out the door. He smiled and offered her one; he already had two in his mouth when he smiled at her. She rolled her eyes but paid the bill and left with him. Instead of turning left out of the restaurant back to the phone booth Jan took the right.

Humming to himself, and a lot happier than he had been earlier, he followed her. He had, truly, no clue where they were going but he enjoyed his time with Jan in any case.He followed her three blocks down, two blocks left, and one more block down. They came upon an apartment complex. 

Turning to Tony Jan asked, “Still able to scale a building like your old self?”

Ton huffed, indignant, and shot, “Old self? I never stopped being able to do it! Just get me to a fire escape.”

Jan smirked at the way he glared playfully at him and motioned him to follow her around the side of the building. There was a fire escape along the side of it. Tony sighed and took a deep breath. He took a few steps back.

His feet pounded on the pavement. He jumped. His hands caught the last rung of the fire escape. His chest stretched. He hissed in slight pain and discomfort as his reactor twinged and shifted. Huffing and puffing he yanked on the fire escape and with a clang it came down. 

Moving out of the way he pulled the steps the rest of the way down for Jan and looked at her like “See?” She rolled her eyes and walked past him and up the stairs.

Calling down from the first landing she said, “This building’s twenty floors, let me know what you think of yourself when we’re at the top.”

Tony sighed, he never could win with Jan, could he? Shaking his head he started climbing the stairs. The slapping of his feet echoes in the alley as he ascended and ascended and ascended. 

Fifteen floors later, his chest was on fire and so were his legs. He took deep gulping breaths as he leaned against the railing. He stretched for a second and slapped his hands on his thighs, trying to get something  than the feeling of static and pain from them. Bouncing on his feet he leaped up the stairs again.

Finally,  _ finally _ , reaching the roof he heaved himself up onto it. On shaky legs, he walked over to where Jan sat on the edge and joined her. He was taking several deep breaths and leaning on her but he had  _ done _ it by God. 

She said, “So you  _ do _ still have it in you, congrats.”

“Screw off,” he snapped lightly, panting still.

The sat there and merely watched the city for a few minutes before Jan spoke up with, “I heard from JARVIS you have a secret admirer.”

Tony sighed against her shoulder and nuzzled into it for a second before saying, “I’m rescinding everyone’s access to  _ my _ AI. Damn it he’s mine. Not yours and not Pepper’s,  _ mine _ . You hear me?”

Jan chuckled at him, “I don’t know what you mean, JARVIS  _ loves _ me.”

Tony grimaced and said, “Yeah that’s  _ kinda _ the problem here.”

Laughing along with her he finally sat up on his own. Stretching his arms over his head, he arched his back and subsequently severely regretted it. With a groan his back shot ramrod straight. A hand came up to rub as his chest as the ache from the stretch was quite severe. It was no wonder why either. Doing that stunt earlier was going to cost him later but it had been worth it. After all, he’d proved Jan wrong.

She smiled at him and said, “That didn’t answer my question about a secret admirer though, you know.”

Waggling her eyebrows at his she nudged his shoulder with her own, prodding at him for an answer. He crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. He wouldn’t be getting out of this anytime soon would he?

“It’s just someone playing a prank on me probably they gave me some flowers and sketches, nothing major,” he admitted.

“Woohoo!” Jan cheered throwing her arms up in jubilation.

Tony fondly rolled his eyes. He knew she would make a big deal out of it. That was one reason he had not texted her yet. Jan had a bit of a flair for dramatic when it came to his true dating life. His playboy image dating she could barely care about but once she found out he had an honest interest in someone it went downhill.

Rhodey was no better, despite his claims. His dear Platypus had a troublemaking streak a mile wide. Thankfully he was on the west coast for some military conference or another. Tony knew he’d be getting the third degree from both of them if Rhodey were here. God, that would have been so embarrassing. With just Jan or just Rhodey, he could deal with it.

This brought him to having the daylights hugged out of him by Jan while they sat on a random apartment buildings roof in New York City. He had resigned himself to this a while ago.

“Jan! I don’t even know their name,” he tried to explain.

Jan shook her head against his upper arm where she had squished it, “Doesn’t matter, Tony. Someone  _ like like _ s you.”

Tony felt some heat creep up his neck and he scratched it as if to tell it to go away, “Is that all we’re here for or did you just want to drag me to some random building for no apparent reason?”

Jan shook her head and said, “No we’re here for something else,” and didn’t elaborate beyond that.

Tony internally sighed and knew he would be getting no more from her. So he settled in and pulled his phone out, watching a movie on it. He contemplated sharing his earbuds with Jan but upon seeing her have her own he mentally declined the notion.

He managed to watch the first two Star Trek movies before his eyes got tired. It had gone dark an hour or so ago. Placing his phone down and turning to ask Jan a question, he screeched in shock and fell backward onto the roof, clutching his chest.

Wheezing as he gained his breath he snapped, “What the hell man?! Warn a guy for Christ's sake.”

Standing between him and Jan had been Daredevil. His arrival had been silent or quiet enough Tony hadn’t heard with only one earbud in and as quiet as his music had been that was feat. Not to mention how paranoid he was about people sneaking up on him. Alas, Daredevil was quite well known for his silent approaches.

All he got in response to his snapping was a blank, he guessed it was hard to tell from the mask covering the eyes, stare from the vigilante. 

“I found what you were looking for, Janet,” Daredevil said holding out a box for Jan. 

Taking it she smiled and pecked him on the cheek. Meanwhile, Tony was picking himself up off the ground and rubbing at his sore, again, chest. Today was just not his day, was it? He watched as Daredevil nodded to Janet, turned to him, nodded, and left them alone with a single leap to another rooftop.

“ _ That’s _ what we’ve been waiting for?” Tony asked, incredulous, “A tiny box?”

Jan leveled a flat glare at Tony and responded, “Do you trust me?”

“Of course,” was his immediate answer.

She nodded, “Then you will see.”

“Can we go home?” he whined.

Jan rolled her eyes but nodded nonetheless. With a whoop of elation, Tony raced to the fire escape and began the long descent. The  _ tap-tap-tap _ ping of his feet on the metal sounded muffled in the alley, like the very smoke of the city was choking out the sound. The foreign sounds reverberated in Tony’s chest and he relished it.

Nights like these were his favorite. He wasn’t  _ The _ Tony Stark. He wasn’t Iron Man. He was just dorky Tony who got in one too many fights at MIT. He was little Tony who had the entire floor of his dorm enforcing a bedtime on him when they could find him. He was baby Tony that took both Rhodey and Jan to hold him down to get the coffee out of his hands. He was him and that was, for once, enough.

Racing Jan back to the tower, through the paparazzi he laughed. Pushing and shoving through press was a learned skill and one he had perfected. Jan, having been his friend for over two and a half decades had perfect the art too. All that it really entailed was shoving through with a should and a “No comment” on the lips of whoever was doing it.

Stumbling into the lobby together Jan and he leaned on one another, laughing in relief. Walking towards the elevator they were stopped by a call of, “Mister Stark!” from the security desk. The two of them turned as if they were one and walked over, gaits matching each other perfectly.

They arrived Tony was handed another vase with a flower and a note.


	4. Shake It Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get a view of the second present and a new letter! We also get some soft team bonding in this chappie. As always come talk to me in comments, I live there. :]

The vase this time was a hand painted clay one. At least that’s what it looked and felt like. The clay was painted a beautiful dull golden color that shined in the light. On the gold was carefully painted the red portions of his suit with a blue reactor in the middle.

Tilting it and turning it he saw a signature on it. It was a horrendously illegible signature. Tony frowned down on it but took the vase properly cradling it against one side of his chest while he took the note and gently put it in Pepper’s jacket pocket. Jan gave him a unique look that somehow read, “You better explain this when we get to the workshop.”

How she knew he was going to the workshop was beyond him. Of course, he did have quite the habit of retreating to the workshop under duress, especially in new situations. He nodded though and lead her to the elevator after signing for his new gifts with his unoccupied hand.

Stepping into the elevator he was greeted with, “I see your secret admirer procured another gift for you, sir,” from JARVIS.

He theatrically groaned and leaned against the wall. His free hand rubbed against his face as he contemplated his life. He was getting teased by his robot son AI who  _ apparently _ had taken an interest in his love life. This felt like some sort of fever dream, if he was being honest. Alas, this was his real actual goddamn life. Screw him.

“Jay if you’re intent on being a little shit I can make your voice squeaky for a month,” he threatened.

“of course sir,” JARVIS acquiesced sounding just a little too smug.

Jan was smothering some of her giggles behind her hand. He shot her a glare and her hand went back down to holding the box she had in her other one. Her mouth was a perfect line though he could see occasional twitches of her lips upwards.

With a small frown on his face, he walked into his workshop.  Sitting his face and letter on his own table he looked for his bots.

DUM-E and U were working on drawing with U’s special crayons on “their” table. Smiling he picked up one of the triangular crayons and drew a little red stick figure of himself on U’s paper. U beeped a few times in confusion before letting out a high-pitched squeal. 

The bot turned and did their own equivalent of hugging him. It was rather uncomfortable as it involved a metal appendage squeezing Tony but he couldn’t deny his babies. DUM-E “looked” up at U’s squeal and joined U. Patting them he cooed at them and praised their drawings.

Letting go the bots spotted Jan and went on the search for more praise. This gave Tony time to grab his letter and read it. It read:

_ “Dear Tony, _

_ “As you can see there is a different flower for you. A different flower for every gift seemed appropriate to me, don’t you think? I just sighed aloud reading that line because I can’t exactly get a response from you. Though, I suppose, once you know who I am you will be able to tell me. I can’t wait.” _

Tony felt his heart go a little bit soft and squishy, metaphorically because hearts were always soft and squishy physically and kinda gross, at the beautiful handwriting this was all done in. The last letters writing seemed a bit rushed compared to this beautiful, dare he say it, calligraphy work in his hands. The way the ink swooped and flowed in writing his name had his finger tracing it.

He suppressed a laugh at the second sentence. He didn’t want Jan reading this with him the first time he read it. He had to agree though. A different flower every gift would give him new chances to learn the flower language like he had never done before. He paused a little on the last line though. So he  _ would _ be meeting them, eventually. That was good.

_ “This is a bit of a long explanation but here goes. This time I sent you seven daffodils. I thought one for each doctorate you had would be a good thing. That and apparently it’s a ton of peoples ‘lucky number.’ I don’t quite understand that but I don’t exactly have to.” _

Tony smiled at the way his admirer seemed nervous. If they had been dealing with The Tony Stark they might have a reason to be but they weren’t. They were dealing with  _ just _ Tony Stark so they had no reason to worry.

The comment on his doctorates made him chuckle. There was no hiding that one. It was public record how many records he had. He had even got in a shouting match with Richards the past month about having more doctorates. Richards hadn’t spoken to him since. He was waiting for the actual explanation though.

_ “Daffodils have several meanings and I am doing a joke on one of them. You see, or read, one of their negative meanings is vanity. Many people say you have this but I disagree. I see you as a man with a mask and all that you need is someone to see beneath it. The other meanings are much sweeter. One is unrequited love, on my part. At least, you don’t know me  _ yet _ so you can’t love me. The last one is ‘the sun shines brighter when I’m with you.’ This is true as I have been around you a few times in my career and heard about you tons, courtesy of a friend. The sun does shine brighter when I’m with you.” _

Tony was pretty damn sure whoever this was, was going to get one hell of a gift when he found out who they were. He knew what the tabloids called him and vain was one of the nicer things they used. Still, looking up at the daffodils, he smiled. The thoughts were very sweet. Not many people really thought he was more than a playboy idiot.

The last two meanings made him want to squeal to Jan like he had when he was fourteen and received his first official Valentines letter. He barely knew this person but he was already ready to give his whole fortune just to meet them. Well, maybe not the  _ whole _ fortune but a large sum of it. 

The “courtesy of a friend” comment caught his eye. So they knew someone who interacted with him on a near-daily basis. This was very intriguing. That would have to be investigated going forward. He made a mental note to ask members of the Avengers if they knew anyone with this handwriting.

The two bots let out a series of mo _ “I didn’t include any drawing this time, sorry. I didn’t have any I liked enough to share them. It’s kinda that thing where no matter how good they are they weren’t good enough for  _ you.  _ I hope you understand what I was going for there otherwise I sound like a huge idiot. There will be some extra gifts with you third present though, don’t worry.  _

_ Wrapping up this letter before I ramble on embarrassingly long, _

_ YSA (Your Secret Admirer)” _

Tony, folding the letter back up, noticed something on the back. Flippin the letter over, he was able to see it clearly. It was a beautifully drawn set of Avengers logos. There was his reactor, Cap’s shield, Widow’s spider, Hawkeye’s bow and arrow, a green fist for Bruce, and a star for Winter Soldier. 

Delicately his hands traced over the drawing of his arc reactor. The little lines in the pencil it was done in made the whole thing seemed rushed but every detail was there perfectly. The way they were arranged made it seem like they were all sitting at a circular table.

Finally folding the letter back up and putting it in the envelope again he called, “Jan you can read the letter I already did.”

Jan let out an indignant huff but walked away from the bots. The bots whined at the loss of their favorite Aunt Jan. Walking over he cooed at them and pet them until they calmed down. DUM-E, brightening up, whirred over to the shake maker, it was not a blender because all that was ever made in it  _ was _ shakes, and pulled out his latest concoction.

It  _ looked _ suspiciously pink. If Tony absolutely had to guess from what he saw it was strawberry, raspberry, and banana. The motor oil was suspiciously close to the other ingredients though so he sent up some silent prayers he hadn’t gotten any motor oil.

With a braver inhale than it took to throw Doom across central park he took a drink. Cringing at the taste before he ever tasted it he slowly unwarped his features as he took a second sip. Smacking his lips, he swished the shake around in his mouth. Both bots seemed to be holding their breaths with their claws pushed together like a couple holding hands waiting for a surprise.

“Not bad, DUM-E,” He praised the bot.

Mostly matching loud beeps and whirs. Releasing the other claw the both turned in circles and DUM-E “punched” the air. Jan looked up from reading the letter and smiled at them.

“Awwwww,” Jan cooed at the bots, before returning to reading.

Tony watched as DUM-E rolled up to him and kept swiping at his wrist, the one with the special ribbon he had been wearing. Raising his wrist DUM-E continued to swipe at it. 

“DUM-E how do we ask for things we want?” Tony asked the bot.

The bot in question gave a beep that starts low and ended high, a bot version of a question. Almost as an afterthought, the bot added a little hum as a sort of “please?”

Tony fondly rolled and gently untied the ribbon from around his wrist. DUM-E made a big show of holding out his claw.  Suppressing a laugh at his son's dramatics, Tony tied the ribbon in a bow on DUM-E’s support struts, like a collar if DUM-E were a human.

Letting out a pleased whirr and spinning his claw DUM-E turned to U. U inspected the ribbon and seemed to nod before they both rolled off to work on their project. Tony was pretty sure they were making some sort of remote controlled…. Something. He wasn’t sure but he was willing to let his children do what they wanted as long as they were happy.

Pouring his shake into a cup and popping a pink straw in it, to match the drink, he walked over to reread the note over Jan’s shoulder. Slurping his drink, he took to watching Jan’s reactions. Her eyes always showed the most and they both knew he could read her like an open book. That was on advantage to having been around her so long.

Folding the envelope back up, she asked, “Got another letter for me?”

Holding up his hands he argued, “Allow me this one thing until Rhodey gives me the shake down, okay?”

She narrowed her eyes at him before nodding and adding, “I’ll inform him of your new status tonight. We’ll see how long it takes him to get back.”

Tony let out an indignant squawk at that as she escaped to the elevator. Running a hand through his hair he muttered, “Shit, I’m dead.”

With a shake of his head, he drained the last of his shake and moved to the small sink set up beside the shake maker. Rinsing and cleaning the area, he let the repetitiveness of the movements flow over him. Soon, he was cleaning his entire lab.

All the spare parts that could be useful went into the Bot Bin while everything that was half-done was placed along the counter that ran along the wall opposite his desk. Any current project was placed close to his table. There were no Avengers projects in this lab, those were upstairs in the communal one. His monitoring project was still on his table. He left that out because he had plans to finish that one next.

Grabbing a small bin he filled with his dirty coffee mugs, all twenty-seven of them. Shifting the box, he smiled at his children for a second then he got into the elevator. Without instruction, the elevator moved towards the Avengers communal floor. He sometimes loved how smart his AI son was.

When he walked onto the floor he saw it was empty. It was no wonder, considering it was three in the morning. Just then he realized he still had no clue why he had wasted his afternoon waiting for Jan to get a small box. Swearing as he placed the bin of mugs down, he turned around to replace Pepper’s jacket.

His swearing kick a notch at finding Black Widow directly behind him. He jumped backward and clutched at the counter. Giving her a glare, he moved to put the coat back on the rack. While he did so he heard her start the arduous process of washing his mugs. That or she was just running water for no apparent reason. Both worked for him.

Happy he had been wearing a t-shirt today he saw that Widow was, in fact, washing his mugs. Joining her, he set to work in the suds of the soap. They were both silent as they worked. When they were nearing the end Tony got out of the water and set himself on drying duty.

When he went to place the last of his mugs in his cabinet, each active avenger got one in addition to their communal ones, he was surprised to find Widow studying him intently. Raising his eyebrows in question he began to dry his hands. Holding out the towel to her, she took it with a nod of thanks.

“Up for some late night Thai?” he asked, moving to the living room.

Watching her, she sometimes preferred non-verbal communication, she shook her head “no.”

“Alright, have a good time doing, whatever you’re doing,” He said as she walked towards the elevator.

Grabbing some leftover popcorn he turned on the large flat screen and was infinitely happy everyone lived on different floors. Scrolling through some channels he settled on a classic rock, like the fifties classic rock, playing channel. After eating his fill of popcorn, he stretched out on absolutely  _ massive  _ lounge he had bought and reinforced. Grabbing one of the softer blankets off the back of it he cuddled down and soon drifted off to sleep.

* * *

 

He woke up with the sun. It shined brightly in his eyes as it slowly rose. He lay there, awake and watching the sun rise, for some great time. He didn’t move to get a coffee, for he wasn’t thirsty yet, and he didn’t move to stretch, for he felt no need to. He simply, for a moment, was.

The moment was broken by JARVIS announcing, “Sir, Miss Widow and Mister Hawkeye will be joining you in a minute.”

Letting out a breath he put the blanket back where it had been on the couch, just now noticing it was Cap’s big blue blanket. That would explain how soft it was. Finally standing and stretching he moaned in delight as his back popped.  _ God _ that felt good. 

Rubbing at his reactor, he made his was to the kitchen and started up the four coffee pots with the various coffees. He didn’t remember off the top of his head if Bruce would be visiting the kitchen today. Shrugging, he took the chance and set a kettle for tea on the stove and turned it on.

The elevator opened and the two S.H.I.E.L.D.  agents walked out. Holding up some bacon and bread he silently asked them if they wanted any. Widow nodded while Hawkeye mumbled, “Cereal,” when walking past. 

Nodding he set about making the bacon. While he made the bacon, Widow manned the toast, Captain America, Bruce, Jan (who must have stayed the night), Ant-Man (sans helmet), and Captain Marvel. He would never say it to any of their faces but he prayed to the heavens that no villain interrupted them before they got something in them. He personally knew Captain Marvel would be heading to bed as she had had the night shift last night and would for the next two weeks. Woe betide those who interrupted her sleep.

Three packs of bacon, one loaf of bread, and twenty-four cups of coffee later they were all feed for now.  This did not include the six bowls of cereal, ten eggs, and one pot of tea made as well. Everyone cleaned up their own stuff, as they always did, and they were almost out of the clear when their communicators went off. Several of them, not including either Captain, groaned at this.

Sighing Tony jogged to his changing room where he changed into his flight suit. He didn’t have the time last time to do this but he’d be damned if he spent another round in the suit in civvie dress. No thank  _ you _ .

The sleek dark suit conformed to his body nicely and was made of bullet  _ resistant _ material as to make it “bulletproof” would require a thicker material of which there was no room for. It had a hexagon imprint style and was the same style as a wetsuit but with feet.  The soles were basically black insoles but thicker and custom designed for his feet. It had a light mesh covering over the reactor. The mesh was a special fiber that would not break unless under extreme duress.

In the flight suit he ran through the carwash. He didn’t rush it like he did last time so the suit settled around him before he began flight. The familiar pinch of the reactor reactor made him smile. Jumping off the platform he waited for the HUD to blink on before blasting off and turning on his comms.

The familiar call-ins of his teammates made him smile. Doing his own call-in of “Iron Man here and shooting to thrill,” he waited for the mission. He righted himself level with the top of the Avengers tower and “stood,” floating beside it. He was waiting for orders, for once.

“Avengers get your asses to the Helicarrier. Coordinates are on HUDs,” Came Fury’s snapping voice.

“Oh, Director, how your dulcet tones sing upon mine ears,” Tony commented.

“Not now, Stark. Just get your ass here,” Fury growled.

“The Avengers are on our way, Director,” came Captain America’s voice.

Nodding to himself Tony shot off to the coordinates on his HUD. It would take a few minutes but he had this.


	5. Fury-ous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the long-term plot comes into play! That's right the ID porn will be living up to its name. Identities play a huge role in this story and I will delight in having fun with you all. As always come chat in comments or at my tumblr.

Landing on the Helicarrier, Tony walked across the deck, despite the terrible winds, and down into the belly of the beast. His shoes lightly clanked against the floors. Checking his HUD he saw that Fury was nice enough to include the conference room number. 

Clanking down a few flights of steps, elevators, unless reinforced, got pretty weird about his suit, he made his way to the right floor. Nodding or ignoring the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents he passed, it depended on how familiar he was with them, he made his way to the room. Compared to some places on the Helicarrier this room was relatively close to the deck of the “ship.”

Going inside the room, he noticed he was the last one there. He did a double take and looked exaggeratedly in the room and out in the hallway. With one hand he pointed at each one of them. Throwing his hands up and grumbling under his breath he took the last seat, the one directly to Fury’s right.

See, the Avengers overall had a bit of a sticking point. They hated sitting by Fury. Several post-mission conferences had been about that, not sitting by Fury. It had become a regular problem until Captain America had come up with a solution. Those who got there first sat furthest away and so on until only the seats next to the Director were available. Today, it seemed, that would be him and Captain Marvel.

This, incidentally, made no sense to him. He hadn’t seen any of them in the airspaces with him and he had shot off before they had. Resisting the urge to put his head in his hands and scream a good long scream, he sat down beside Fury. The man in question gave a glare at the suit but nodded.

“You’re probably wondering why I brought you all here today,” Fury announced as he stood up with his arms spread across the table.

Clint answered, “Well unless you wanted to see our smiling dear, little faces, I have a feeling you have some important information you want to tell us.”

Fury leveled a single-eyed glare at Clint but continued, “We’ve been hacked, several times.”

Tony clamped a hand over his “mouth” as he tried to smother his giggles. Some of them were caught by the comms though and everyone turned to him as if on cue. Immediately he clamped down on his urge to laugh and awkwardly cleared his throat. JARVIS, ever so helpful, popped his faceplate up to give them a better view.

“Uhhhhhhhhm, hey?” he squeaked out.

“Have something to say, Stark?” Widow asked, looking positively venomous.

Tony  _ meeped _ a bit in his mind and was glad he had Jan and Hawkeye between him and her.

Clearing his throat though he sat forward and said, “No offense  _ but _ I hack S.H.I.E.L.D. like every other week to find out thing people lie to me about.”

Fury rolled his eyes and gritted out, “ _ We know. _ However, you stay to stuff that we would prefer you don’t see. You don’t go looking for secret identities and weaknesses.”

Tony rolled and his eyes to face the team and then rolled his head back, saying, “Well  _ duh _ that would be rude.”

Clint snorted and Captain America groaned, covering his face with his gloved hands. Fury looked up at the ceiling like he was praying for patience. He probably was, knowing Fury. Tony didn’t get the whole point though. S.H.I.E.L.D. knew its defenses were low but they often backtracked the people. That was how they got people. When you hacked into their servers they followed you back to yours to catch you. 

It was the people they couldn’t trace that got their attention. See, when Tony hacked them he turned their web pages pretty colors like pink and purple. This was while JARVIS was getting him the weapon specs he actually wanted. He also changed random words to auto shortcut to “corn.” He liked messing with them.

“ _ Anyways _ ,” Fury snapped, “They’ve been digging for all of you secret identities, except you, Stark, seeing as yours is public knowledge.”

Tony nodded in acknowledgment. HIs identity being public had happened years ago. Everyone else’s was more secretive. The only reason he knew Jan and Rhodey’s identities was because he had gone to college with them. He knew Pym was probably Ant-man but couldn’t  _ quite _ say it with certainty. He and Jan spent too much time alone together for him not to be Ant-Man. Still, Tony was a good gambler so he refused to bet.

Most heroes, however, were very secretive about their identities. After several years as a hero, he could understand why too. Several times when they villains thought they could attack some poor Stark Industries employee because they were his “weak spot.” He hated them when they did that. Yet, he always came and he always fought to win.

Everyone else, instead of musing who their teammates were, grew deadly serious. Tony knew Captain America was actually the guy from the forties and that he used a voice changer, impervious to EMPs courtesy of Tony.  Was he always the same guy though? Sometimes he used guns; sometimes he didn’t. He wore long sleeves and gloves so the ability to see was limited to what little of his cowl didn’t block his face. 

Ant-Man didn’t use a voice changer but two people definitely were Ant-Man, he’d seen one that wasn’t Pym without the helmet quite often. This complicated matters because that meant that two people would be in jeopardy. Captain Marvel was undeniably one person, thankfully. Widow and Hawkeye were also singular identities having people, thankfully. Though he  _ had _ heard rumors of another Widow in Russia. She had blonde hair. 

Then there was Bruce. No one outside of the team really knew that the Hulk had an alter ego. Sure, the random S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who got charged with cleaning up and checking on the Avengers and Fury knew but they didn’t count. Partially because the last time someone had tried to hurt the poor doctor they had ended up with all the Avengers up in arms at them and partially because no one wanted to be on the bad side of the man who controlled the Hulk.

Captain America, ever the voice of reason, spoke up first, “Director, what are you doing to find this person? I mean, you  _ are _ doing something, correct?”

Fury nodded and said, “We’re doing our utmost best to track them but we are having some difficulties. That is why we called you here today. We wanted to warn you. We will notify you immediately if there is a breach or we are compromised, any questions?”

Silence reigned for a few minutes before Tony asked, rather blithely, “So, what’s your favorite coffee, Fury?”

Walking to the door, Fury sighed, “Alright we’re done with that. I’ll leave you all to see what to do with this information amongst yourselves. Have a nice day.”

“Our day hasn’t been very nice so far,” Hawkeye called.

“Have a _ Day _ then,” Fury shot over his shoulder.

“Well we can’t really argue with that,” Bruce interjected.

Tony let out a bark of laughter at that but both Captains leveled stares at him. Clapping his gauntlets over his mouth he watched as Hawkeye had to hide his own grin behind his hand. A snicker escaped and the Captains focuses changed. This, naturally, caused Jan to release her own snicker. Within seconds everyone, sans Captain America and Widow, was laughing.

The two who weren’t laughing shared a long-suffering look. They did this quite often, surprisingly enough. The Avengers wasn’t exactly known for being the most stoic bunch outside of battle but what did everyone expect? Being serious all the time was too much work. Growing old was mandatory but growing up was optional.

Clearing his throat, Captain America called the room to order with barely a thought. Everyone went silent immediately and turned to the Captain at the end of the table, standing braced with his hands brace at either corner.

“Is there anyone here who is willing to reveal their secret identity? It  _ may _ or may not happen sooner or later, as Fury said,” he asked.

Everyone awkward;y looked at one another before Jan raised her hand. It was shaking slightly. The Captain nodded at her.

Clearing her throat, she stated, “My name is Janet Van Dyne and I’m Tony’s best female friend and babysitter.”

Tony squawked at that and disagreed, “I don’t need a babysitter.”

“Yes, you do,” Jan, Bruce, Widow, Captain Marvel, and Captain America responded.

Folding his arms across his chest he grumbled obscenities under his breath. Jan patted his shoulder with a false-comfort face from across the table, stretching quite a bit to do it.

Captain Marvel sat forward next and said, “Guess it’s my go then. I’m Carol Danvers and I’m a commander at the Alpha Flight Program.”

Tony held out a hand across the table to shake. Warily Carol took it. Shaking her hand twice he smiled and greeted, “Nice to meet you Carol.”

Small choruses of the same words to both Carol and Jan followed his declaration. Everyone talked to Jan and Carol, introducing themselves again, yet for the first time. Hands were shook and questions were asked. One in particular caught his attention.

“So, Jan, has Tony always been this bad?” Hawkeye asked.

Tony lunged across the table and put a gauntlet over Jan’s mouth with a shout of, “Jan, don’t you dare!”

Jan mumbled against the gauntlet as he loudly sang offkey to distract everyone else, who were staring quite intently at him and Jan. Jan put a hand on the gauntlets wrist and pointed to a small hatch on it. He shook his head.

“Jan, please for the love of all that is holy and by that I mostly mean coffee,  _ don’t answer that question _ ,” he hissed.

She comically shrugged and raised her eyebrows with a too innocent look. Sighing, he dropped his chin to his chest. He removed his gauntlet and sat back down, defeated. Slumping in his chair, he silently looked to the ceiling praying for Jan not to choose his worst stories.

“You mean like the time he quadruple distilled his coffee and was  _ vibrating _ for hours before full on collapsing in the middle of a physics class?” Jan asked Tony.

Everyone laughed and Tony rolled his eyes. He also had not been able to sleep the week before due to having his father visit. He never slept when his father visited and Jan knew that. Any sleep after that was tenuous and short. So he had invented the triple distiller. It was one of his prouder moments until he had practically begun to vibrate in his caffeine induced haze.

When he had collapsed they had, naturally, rushed him to the nearest hospital when he didn’t wake up. Jarvis had shown up and made sure he was alright as he  _ was _ technically a legal guardian of Tony. It had been a rough month for him but seeing Jarvis had made it all better. Even if his triple distiller had been destroyed by Rhodey and Jan the next day. 

Eventually everyone calmed down and as one they got up and headed out to the hangar to leave. Tony’s faceplate snapped shut and Jan suited up. Everyone who needed them put on oxygen masks, for they were at a very high altitude. Getting on their skycycles or in the avenjet, or merely bracing themselves against the winds they were about to experience.

The doors opened and the skycycle and avenjet took off. Jan leaped acrobatically into the air and took flight while Tony ran into the sky and let himself drop a few thousand feet, the wind rushing in his ears. 

Kicking, quite literally, his suit into flight he shot up and did a barrel roll around his teammates. He could tell Jan rolled her eyes but Hawkeye gave a wave from his position behind Widow. Waving back, Tony flew beside them.

A sudden ringing drew his attention on his HUD.  Flicking his eyes to it, he let out a very unprofessional squawk upon seeing it was Rhodey. 

“Jan I’m going to  _ kill _ you,” he hissed into the Avengers comms before dropping out of them.

Answering the call, he was, for a moment, honestly surprised that it was a voice chat. He got a shot of Rhodey that was probably from Roxie’s HUD, Roxie being the AI he designed to fly Rhodey’s suit.

“He _ llo, _ Platypus. How may I help you today?” Tony purred.

“I heard from Jan you got a secret admirer,” Rhodey replied.

For the second time that day Tony flailed mid-air and lost some altitude. He knew that everyone on his side of the call would be confused, save Jan, as they watched him flail in his suit.

“Rhodey! You can’t just spring that on someone,” He argued.

“I can and I will. Spill the beans,” Was the passing return.

Sighing, he said, “I’ll tell you the next time we’re face to face.”

“Okay, I’ll see you tonight then,” was the answer before Rhodey hung up.

Coming back to the Avengers comms he sighed. No one made a comment though he could tell they wanted too. The rest of the flight back was spent in relative silence. They didn’t even play I Spy because many of them were too wrapped in the fact that their identities might become public at the drop of the hat. 

Tony tried to cheer them up by pulling stunts and telling jokes but even he could tell it was all for naught. Turning off his comms he quietly designed the presents he had been working on for months for them, while he flew. Thanksgiving had been last week and he was planning on decorating the tower the rest of today and tomorrow. 

Contrary to popular belief, he did have problems with Christmas but overall found the holiday enjoyable with people other than his family. All the invitations had been sent out today for all the Avengers to join him at the tower for a party. He knew many of them would turn it down but he sent them regardless. In fact, he had an internal debate on whether or not several members would even reply.


	6. Captain Blanket

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little bit of a shorter chapter but big developments will happen in the next chapter, promise!

Later that night, when about half of the decorations were up he wandered down to his lab. This is where he found Rhodey, in full War Machine armor, waiting for him. Rolling his eyes and throwing some spare garland at the armor, he waited for Rhodey to step out of it. Jan had gone to bed an hour ago, it was currently one in the morning.

Rhodey stepped out of the armor. The armor walked over and laid itself on the table he worked on it on. Grabbing his toolkit, or one of them, he walked over to the suit and began to reset the minor problems. Rhodey brought over his other two toolkits and slid some goggles on him. 

“You wanted to talk, go ahead,” Tony prompted around a screwdriver motioning for Rhodey to hold down a button. 

Rhodey did so and commented, while sparks flew, “Here I thought secret admirers were something you shared with your best friends.”

Tony finished what he was doing and pushed up his goggles. Looking at Rhodey he raised an eyebrow in silent question. Thankfully Rhodey needed no words to be said aloud to get Tony’s point.

“Yeah, I know. You don’t tell me anything until you test the hypothesis. I’m guessing you were waiting to see if this would all blow over as a prank?” Rhodey continued as Tony moved up the other arm of the suit.

Tony rolled his eyes and nodded his head. Silence fell after a few moments. Rhodey walked over to the desk, where Tony had put the letter after Jan had left, and picked up the last letter. Reading it, he perched on the desk.

Tony watched him out of the corner of his eye as he worked on the suit. He had gone from minor repairs to checking up on Roxie. Her code had helpfully been highlighted by the AI herself, showing him some areas where faults had formed.

Showing Roxie some possible solutions he let the AI reprogram herself. He knew she could do it.  She knew she could do it. Rhodey knew she could do it. Everyone who knew of Roxie knew she could do it. The problem was it was best not to edit one’s own code when you were in the middle of a fight. So, whenever she was in his lab she would do repairs on herself, JARVIS assisted as he had been around longer than her but she got most of the work done herself.

Tony relaxed against the counter along the wall opposite Rhodey. He was now wearing a pair of Widow’s black tights, which hugged his calves beautifully, and one of Rhodey’s old MIT sweatshirts. He had on one of his AC/DC tanks on under the sweatshirt.His sleeves were rolled up and the goggles were pushed back on top of his head, messing up his hair. He had a lazy smirk on and was sipping some hot chocolate that Jan had made earlier.

Rhodey made a motion as if he was shuffling papers and Tony pointed to the bottom left drawer. Rhodey took out the note and saw the drawing. Evaluating them for a second, he sat them and the second note in the drawer. With a practiced eye, Rhodey began to read the first note. Tony could already hear Jan yelling at him for this. He could also see the reading glasses Rhodey would need eventually perched on his friend’s nose. He wondered if Rhodey would choose dark grey or black glasses.

Rhodey finished the letter and put it back on before leveling a look at Tony. Tony intimately knew this look and knew he would be getting a lecture. He was wary though because his Secret Admirer  _ seemed _ genuine and he actually liked the other person. Gender wasn’t really an issue for him though judging from the way the letters were formed it was probably a man.

Rhodey started, “I just want to know one thing; do you like them?”

Tony nodded, “I think I do. I think I really do Honeybear.”

Rhodey nodded and crossed the lab, placing his hands on Tony’s shoulder, “Then I say go for it. If you get a chance do it.  _ Carpe natem _ .”

Tony blinked dumbly before asking, “I’m sorry did you just tell me to seize their ass in Latin.”

Rhodey leaned forward so their noses were almost touching and whispered, “Carpe, fucking, natem.”

Tony was only able to maintain a straight face for a few seconds before he dissolved into laughter, using the counter as a brace. Rhodey, at seeing his friend dissolve into laughter tooka step to the side to brace his own self against the counter as he laughed. 

They tried to stop laughing but both of them were exhausted from their days so it was  _ really _ funny to them. They just couldn’t stop. Every time they caught each other’s eyes or took too deep a breath their laughter would start up again. It was like some terribly infectious disease.

Eventually, they calmed down, sitting shoulder to shoulder. Their laughter trailed off and they just looked at each other. Their legs were spread out in front of them. Tony leaned against Rhodey’s shoulder. His cheek was squished against Rhodey’s shoulder and Rhodey’s own cheek was resting on top of his head. They were both breathing heavy and their eyes were drooping.

Before long they both nodded off. JARVIS pinged DUM-E and U. U ignored it. DUM-E beeped to life. Rolling over to a cabinet that was beside the desk he opened the lowest door to it. With practiced movements, he removed a Captain America soft fleece blanket. Since it was picked up by the corner, it unfolded as it was folded specifically to do and DUM-E was able to drape it across the two sleeping men. Rolling around them, he adjusted it to “tuck them in.” Satisfied with his work he pinged JARVIS and rolled back to his charging station to “sleep” for the night.

Tony woke up when he went to roll over and face planted  _ directly _ into the floor. Groaning he felt Rhodey fall on top of him. Turning, he shoved Rhodey off of him onto the floor. Rhodey had the wherewithal to flip him off. Mumbling in Latin, Rhodey rolled over, burrito-ing himself in the blanket. 

Tony pushed himself up, off the floor, and stood. He stretched and heard his back pop. Groaning, he scratched at his beard. He needed to trim that today. Yawning he made his way to his floor and cleaned up some, taking a shower and trimming his beard. Today would be a good day.

The day was spent decorating the tower. He had changed into an obnoxious christmas sweater. Done in a base color of red it had little golden faceplates on each shoulder and a false reactor on top of his actual reactor. Little Avengers symbols covered the whole thing and there were  _ all _ the Avengers, not just the current team. 

Rhodey was shoved into a War Machine one with little war machine head covering the entire thing while Jan was shoved into a Wasp one. They both grumbled for a good twenty minutes but when they saw they didn’t have to wear the sparkly reindeer antlers Tony was sporting as well they calmed down significantly.

Tinsel was thrown and garland was hung. Everything was done,  _ including _ the trees. There were little two feet trees scattered throughout the communal floor. Each one was a Main Avengers primary color with ornament hung in their secondary color(s). The little tree toppers were their symbols.

There was one main tree that stood six feet tall in the communal living. It was decorated like any other person’s christmas tree. It had family heirloom ornaments and new ornaments with no discernible color scheme. With a famous, for Rhodey, Jan, and Tony that was, angel atop it stood proud for holding some gifts beneath it, some of which had already appeared.

Walking back to the communal kitchen, for they were done for the day, the threesome sat at the huge table in the center. Jan folded her arms in front of her and rested her head on them while Rhode sat like he normally did. 

Tony had pulled a tablet from  _ somewhere _ and was designing more Christmas gifts. He had a few completed and sent to the fabricating plants for now. He would be getting them all done on time, hopefully. He was like forty-five percent sure he would get it all done on time? Taking a drink of coffee, he prepared himself for a long night of working.


	7. Seedlings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next flower comes in this chapter! not much plot wise but some explanations for later

 

Tony was brought out of his designing reverie by a cleared throat. Blinking, and finding himself alone in the kitchen unless you counted two passed out friends leaning on one another at 3am. They were quite cute too if he was being honest. He sent JARVIS a quick missive about taking  _ many _ pictures and videos. Turning, he found himself face to face with Captain America.

“What can I do for ya, Winghead?” Tony asked, twirling his stylus and infinitely happy the man in front of him’s gift had already been completed.

Captain America tilted his head, studying Tony for a moment. He seemed to be debating something. After a moment he seemed to make a decision. Reaching into a back pocket, he pulled out a letter. Tony’s eyes darted over the name written on it and knew it was from his secret admirer. His eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“This is from a friend to you, Shellhead,” Captain America answered.

He held out a sealed envelope. Tony looked at it for a second before Captain seemed to remember something and sat it on the table.

Tapping it with a finger he said, “He’s a close friend of mine. Hurt him and I crush you, simple.”

Tony, who had been eyeing the envelope on the table, turned his gaze towards Captain America.  He swallowed nervously. The man rarely talked of his life outside of work, only that he was friends with some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and had some very close friends outside of his career as a superhero. Tony found this whole ordeal very interesting but also understood now was the time to be quiet and not mention it. Besides, having his life threatened had him quiet enough. The Good Captain didn’t dish out things he couldn’t come through on.

Nodding, Tony answered, “Will do, Cap. Anything else you need me for.”

“Nope, just be sure to have these two not down our throats when they wake up in a few hours,” came the reply with a little smile and salute.

Tony watched him leave before his gaze slowly slid to the envelope again. A hand snatched it up and we moved to get a knife to open it. Flicking one of Widow’s secret  _ sharp _ weapons out of a false cereal box, he opened the letter. His eyes had already memorized the calligraphy of his name on the front.

Opening the letter, he was treated to some beautiful paper. He moved the letter to his nose and sniffed it experimentally and nearly groaned at the smell of expensive paper. This was also parchment or papyrus but lacked the designs often sewn into or pressed into such materials. The expensive paper it was then. 

It was a simple note, he saw as he unfolded it. It barely took up any space. The signature at the bottom was  _ very  _ large. Finally getting his head on straight he decided to read the note. There was no introduction.

“ _ I will reveal myself to you on Christmas Day. Until then enjoy my, albeit not real, but beautiful flowers I present you with tonight on the other sheet of paper in the envelope. (Captain America  _ should _ have included both but the fool sometimes forgets if the second sheet is not in here go bother him.) _

_ -Steven Rogers” _

Tony looked inside the envelope and frowned. There was only one piece of paper, the one in his hand. He sighed and slumped dramatically in his chair. Looking to the ceiling he prayed to a God he didn’t really believe in for strength for a second. 

Pushing himself upright he said, “JARVIS, inform Winghead we’re coming to his room. He owes me something.”

“Of course, Sir,” came the steady reply.

Tony got up and walked towards the elevator. It was only then he realized he was still wearing his horrible christmas outfit. He felt the blood drain from his face and he swore loudly. He was infinitely happy that his best friends were passed out on a table. They would never let him live wearing this monstrosity of an outfit down in front of his hero. Rubbing at his cheeks, he got in the elevator and rode it down to the correct floor.

Dinging it’s little bell, which Tony was more for Cap than him, the elevator came to a stop and Tony came out. He was met with a Captain without his cowl. An appearance changing necklace hung from his necklace. They were one of Tony’s more favorite inventions.

The necklace itself looked like a little circular symbol. In Cap’s case it was a small version of his shield. What the necklace did was disguise any of the following; eye color, hair color, facial structure, facial hair, and depth of voice. Tony had not a single idea what it changed for Cap. He always had it on though so even in uniform he had these changed features.

Sometimes he wondered though. He wondered if the steely grey eyes of Captain America’s were really his or if the black hair was actually his. The deep voice, a low rumbling baritone like thunder in the sky, was most likely his but Tony couldn’t be sure. That was one part he hated about being so generous to people. He allowed them, Widow, Hawkeye, and Captain America, to have secret identities if they wanted. 

Widow had declined, which Tony had expected, but Hawkeye and Cap had both agreed. He could barely remember what their mediocre attempts at disguising themselves had been the first time they had convened as a team. He had immediately given them the necklaces.

“Is there something I can do for you, Tony?” Cap asked.

Tony handed Cap the short letter and pointed to the important part, the end. “I only got one paper, Winghead,” he explained.

Cap cursed under his breath and waved tony further into the floor, down the hallway. Coming to a common room, Cap handed back the note and walked over to a desk absolutely  _ covered _ in papers. Tony was silently impressed. Piles of paperwork sat teetering between books and random scrap papers with small blocked letters on them sat in spills around them. He watched as Cap rooted around the desk before producing a piece of sketching paper with a small exclamation of elation.

Walking back over Cap handed over the sketch paper, which had a sticky not attached. Tony wondered if it was an actual Post-It note or not. 

“Here you go, Shellhead. The explanation of the flower is on the sticky note,” Cap explained.

Smiling, Tony muttered a, “Thanks,” and proceeded back to the elevator. The floor wasn’t his and he needed the privacy of his own floor to squeal like the little teenage girl he felt like inside. Well, scratch that. The little teenage boy he felt like inside was a more apt saying considering he  _ had _ squealed quite impressively on several occasions. God, some of those he would never live down.

Getting in the elevator he headed back up to the common floor, knowing Jan and Rhodey would want updates on the “admirer situation” as soon as possible. His friend could be so predictable sometimes. Yet, he loved them anyways, despite their rather interesting flaws. Of course there were some things that when done together you couldn’t help but be best friends afterwards. For instance, the mango incident. Never forget the mango incident. The day that Mangoes lived in infamy.

Walking back to his abandoned post, he looked, properly looked, at his new drawing. He blinked. He looked again. He blinked. Nope, it was still the same picture. He smothered a giggle. Then his shoulders began to shake. Slapping a hand over his mouth, he laughed into it. His smothered laughter grew louder and louder until he was wheezing with laughter.

It hurt, god did it hurt, but it was so  _ funny _ for some reason. Granted it  _ was  _ three in the morning but why was this little picture so funny. Eventually he was laughing so hard it was little squeaks with deep gasping breaths while he clapped his hands like some form of seal. Tears had began to stream down his face at this point so heavily he didn’t really care.

With a particularly loud wheeze, he fell into Jan and Rhodey who both jerked awake with groans. Together, in perfect admirable sync, they looked to the clock on the wall. With, again, identical looks they picked him and his papers up, the latter of which they carefully folded and put with the tablet in its’ sleeve that protected the screen when the tablet when not in use, and carried him up to his floor. 

Rhodey watched him change into his, admittedly very warm, thor footie pajamas, before they both had him lay in the center of his bed. Tony laid on his right side in the center on top of the covers. After a few moments Jan lay down in front of whim while Rhodey lay down behind him. They all snuggled together and soon were all passed out. In their sleep Tony draped himself diagonal across the other two who lay on different side of the bed. His head was on Rhodey’s collarbone with his hips on Jan’s, legs intertwined.

* * *

JARVIS, the ever silent guardian, turned down the temperature in the room. Cuddling made people hot after all and hot was not something Sir liked. No, he preferred cold and this way they snuggled closer in his video feed. JARVIS knew Sir would be getting someone to date and he hoped this “Steven Rogers” understood what Mr. Rhodes and Ms. Van Dyne meant to Sir. If he did not and crossed lines, well, JARVIS was not above destroying him in the most painful ways possible. 

JARVIS had met Mr. Rogers once before. He had been comparing biometrics from what he could for weeks before he had found out what bugged him about Mr. Rogers. His physique as inherently unique. It marked several traits, if not all- he had not had enough data to see, of those that belonged to with the people who had the super soldier serum. 

This deeply puzzled JARVIS. Only two people had had the super soldier serum to his knowledge and that was Winter Soldier and Captain America. He would have investigated it further but he had been backlogged on Sirs other duties. Now though, now he had time to investigate it and investigating it he was.

* * *

 

On the paper folded into the tablet was a beautiful picture. A warm pencil drawn leather boot was drawn as is lit from the front. The leather had faded patches on it and looked beautifully done in other spots. The tongue of the boot dipped forward and revealed the plant of the drawing. 

A little seedling had sprouted up from the soil that rested in and slightly leaked out of the boot. It’s small green leaves stood, perked proudly, in the presumed sunlight. There were two perfectly drawn leaves. The seed casing sat, discarded and off to the side like a forgotten memory. 

The sticky note read, “ _ Seedling/sprout: new beginnings and turning over a new leaf _ ,” as a simple explanation. There was a small word that had a strikethrough written on it and that read “WALL-E?” 

It did not take a genius like Tony to make the leap of small robots and real life robots. Tony had wondered when he fell asleep if DUM-E would appreciate having a movie “named after him.”


End file.
